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Mount Union borough

Morton's Service Station, Mount Union

In April 1950 a census taker in Mount Union wrote down a household headed by Willie P. Morton, age 39, born in North Carolina. The form records him as Black. He had worked 40 hours the week before. The census taker put his work as station attendant and his business as gas station, and in the column for class of worker he wrote O, which the form defines as "In OWN business."

Six people on that page are shown at work, and Morton's is the only O. The other five worked for employers: a railroad, a coat factory, a saloon and the brickyards.

Sixteen years later, "Morton's Service Station, Mount Union" appears in the Patrons' List of the book for the Mapleton centennial, held July 10 through July 16, 1966. The census does not name his station and the book does not name its owner. We read them as the same man's business because the name, trade and town match, and that reading is ours.

A gravestone in Mount Union Cemetery carries the name Willie P. Morton and the years 1910 and 1969, a birth year that fits the age on the census page.

Checked against the record. We read the 1950 census page, the 1966 Patrons' List and a photograph of the gravestone as images, not transcriptions. No record we opened joins the census entry to the station by name, and none joins the gravestone to either one. The links are our reading of matching names, years and town. We saw no death record or obituary. The census page gives no street beside his line, so no address is given. Still open: when the station opened, where it stood, what brand it sold, who else worked there and how long it lasted. We have not seen a Mount Union directory, a fire insurance map from those years, or the 1940 census. The county histories we checked do not mention the station. A Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive search found nothing, which does not prove no notice ran.

Sources

  1. 1950 U.S. Census, April 13, 1950, Mount Union borough, district 31-37, sheet 10: Willie P. Morton, line 29
  2. Mapleton Centennial book, July 1966, scan image n85: Morton's Service Station in the Patrons' List
  3. Find a Grave, photograph dated July 30, 2021, memorial 230270499: gravestone of Willie P. Morton, Mount Union Cemetery

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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Photographs from Mount Union borough

Shirley Street at Jefferson Street, downtown Mount Union, February 1990Shirley Street at Jefferson Street, downtown Mount Union, February 1990Jet Lowe, , 1990. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
A swimming pool created by a CCC dam, captioned Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, July 1941, Farm Security Administration photograph.A swimming pool created by a CCC dam, captioned Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, July 1941, Farm Security Administration photograph.Edwin Rosskam, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF33-005210-M4 (LC-DIG-fsa-8a15977) · Public domain
The corner of Shirley and Jefferson streets in Mount Union, a recent photograph.The corner of Shirley and Jefferson streets in Mount Union, a recent photograph.Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · CC0
East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company, Roundhouse, State Route 994, West of U.S. Route 522, Rockhill FurnaceEast Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company, Roundhouse, State Route 994, West of U.S. Route 522, Rockhill FurnaceLibrary of Congress · pa3371
Mount Union in T. M. Fowler's bird's-eye view, 1906, the year after the quarantine.Mount Union in T. M. Fowler's bird's-eye view, 1906, the year after the quarantine.Library of Congress Panoramic Maps (T. M. Fowler, 1906) · Public domain
Peduzzi's Soda and LunchPeduzzi's Soda and LunchWikimedia Commons (Smallbones, CC0) · c02

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